Rensselaer man pleads guilty to fraud charges
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) - According to the U.S Attorney's Office, a Rensselaer man pled guilty to multiple fraud charges that could send him to jail for up to 20 years. The man also agreed to pay over $100,000 in restitution.
On Wednesday, March 30, Hector J. Sanchez, 30, of Rensselaer, pled guilty to the following crimes:
- Defrauding pandemic-related unemployment insurance programs administered by the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL)
- Fraudulently obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan.
- Mail fraud
- Aggravated identity theft in connection with his unemployment insurance fraud scheme
- Soliciting the personal identifying information of other people on social media and using the information to submit false unemployment insurance applications to NYSDOL
- Fraudulently obtained a PPP loan by falsely claiming to run a car wash business.
Sanchez agreed to pay restitution of $131,560 to the State of New York and $12,500 to the PPP lender. Sanchez is scheduled to be sentenced on July 25, by United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino.
The mail fraud convictions carry maximum terms of 20 years in prison, fines of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. The aggravated identity theft conviction carries a mandatory term of 2 years in prison, to be imposed consecutively to any other term of imprisonment.
The case was investigated by USPIS, USDOL-OIG, and HSI, with assistance from the NYSDOL Office of Special Investigations and the Albany Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Chisholm.